Revolutions of 1989

Revolutions of 1989
Top left: Round Table in Warsaw. Top right: Fall of the Berlin Wall. Middle left: Romanian Revolution. Middle right: Velvet Revolution in Prague. Bottom: Baltic Way in Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian SSR.
Other names	Fall of Communism, Collapse of Communism, Collapse of Socialism, Fall of Socialism, Autumn of Nations
Participants	Peoples of the Eastern Bloc People of China
Location	Eastern Bloc China
Date	1989-1993
Result	Peaceful transfer of power to non-Communist governments in Poland, Hungary, East Germany (nowadays a part of Germany, Czechoslovakia (nowadays Czech Republic and Slovakia, Bulgaria and Albania Violent overthrowing Communist Government in Romania. German reunification Violent transfer of power to a non-Communist government in Romania Breakup of the Soviet Union Breakup of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Wars Violent Suppression to the Chinese democracy movement Dissolution of the Warsaw Pact Changes in dozens of other countries. End of the Cold War

The Revolutions of 1989 (also known as the Fall of Communism, the Collapse of Communism, the Revolutions of Eastern Europe and the Autumn of Nations^[1]) are the revolutions which overthrew Soviet-style Communist states in Eastern-bloc European countries.

The events began in Poland,^[2][3] and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania. Romania was the only Eastern-bloc country to overthrow its Communist regime violently.^[4] The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 failed to stimulate major political changes in China, however powerful images of courageous defiance during that protest helped to spark a precipitation of events in other parts of the globe.

Albania and Yugoslavia abandoned Communism between 1990 and 1992, the latter splitting into five successor states by 1992: Slovenia, Croatia, Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (comprising Serbia and Montenegro). The Soviet Union was dissolved by the end of 1991, resulting in Russia and 14 new nations that declared their independence from the Soviet Union: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The impact was felt in dozens of Socialist countries. Socialism was abandoned in countries such as Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Mongolia. The collapse of Communism led commentators to declare the end of Cold War.

The adoption of varying forms of market economy generally resulted at first in decreasing living standards in post-Communist States, together with side effects including the rise of business oligarchs in countries such as Russia, and disproportional social and economic development. Political reforms were varied; in many countries Communist institutions were able to keep themselves in power, such as the People's Republic of China, while for other states various emerging political parties succeeded. Many Communist and Socialist organisations in the West turned their guiding principles over to social democracy. The European political landscape was drastically changed, with numerous Eastern Bloc countries joining NATO and stronger European economic and social integration entailed. Furthermore, continued economic reforms in the People's Republic of China also began the country's rise as a global economic powerhouse.

Background

Rise of Socialism

Ideas of Socialism had been gaining momentum among working class citizens of the world since the 19th century, these culminated in the early 20th century when several countries and subsequent nations formed their own Communist Parties. Ordinarily, Socialism was undesirable within the circles of the ruling classes of the late 19th/early 20th century states; as such, Communist ideology was repressed - its champions suffered persecution while the nation on the whole was discouraged from adopting the mindset. This had been the practice even in the states which identified as exercising a multi-party system.

The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 saw the multi-ethnic Soviets overturn a previously nationalist Russian state along with its monarchy. Soviets then spread Socialism to many developing countries. The Bolsheviks comprised ethnicities of all entities which would compose the Soviet Union throughout its phases.

During the interwar period, Communism had been on the rise in many parts of the world (e.g. in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, it had grown popular in the urban areas throughout the 1920s). This led to a series of purges in many countries to stifle the movement.

Just as Communism had at some stage grown popular throughout the entities of Eastern Europe, its image had also begun to tarnish at a later time all within the interwar period. As Socialist activists stepped up their campaigns against their oppressor regimes, they resorted to violence (including bombings and various other killings) to achieve their goal: this led large parts of the previously pro-Communist populace to lose interest in the ideology. A Communist presence forever remained in place however, but reduced from its earlier size.

After World War II, the Soviet Union had established a presence in a number of countries. There, they brought into power various Communist parties who were loyal to Moscow. The Soviets retained troops throughout the territories they had occupied. The Cold War saw these states, bound together by the Warsaw Pact, have continuing tensions with the capitalist west symbolized by NATO. Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China and his Communist regime in 1949.

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, a spontaneous nationwide anti-authoritarian revolt, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary to assert control. In 1968, the USSR repressed the Prague Spring by organizing the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Problems in Socialist countries

The Black Book of Communism, published in 1997, estimates that 94 million people were killed under Communist regimes.^[5]

In the People's Republic of China, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries and land reform, brought about the deaths of tens of millions of people.^[6][7]

The press in the Communist period was an organ of the state, completely reliant on and subservient to the Communist party. Media served as an important form of control over information and society.^[8] The dissemination and portrayal of knowledge were considered by authorities to be vital to Communism's survival by stifling alternative concepts and critiques.^[8] However, Western countries invested in powerful transmitters which enabled Western services to be heard in the Eastern Bloc, despite attempts by authorities to jam the airways. Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet-bloc.

Indoctrination in under Communist regimes has been criticized as leaving a legacy of apathy and indifference in their respective countries, and as well introducing widespread dishonesty and disdain of criticism.^[9]

Environmental degradation was heavy in Socialist countries. The air pollution, groundwater contamination, Trabant, and the Chernobyl disaster became icons of Socialism.

Developments in the 1980s

Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1979. In 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in the US presidential election, vowing to increase military spending and confront the Soviets everywhere.^[10] Both Reagan and Thatcher denounced the Soviet Union and its ideology. Reagan labeled the Soviet Union an "evil empire" and predicted that Communism would be left on the "ash heap of history".^[11]

New Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping developed the concept of Socialism with Chinese characteristics.

By the 1980s, nearly all the economies of the Eastern Bloc had stagnated, falling behind the technological advances of the West.^[12] The systems, which required party-state planning at all levels, ended up collapsing under the weight of accumulated economic inefficiencies, with various attempts at reform merely contributing to the acceleration of crisis-generating tendencies.^[13]

In Poland, more than 60% of population lived in poverty, and inflation, measured by black-market rate of the U.S. dollar, was 1,500% in the period 1982 - 1987.^[14]

1980 strike at Gdańsk Shipyard, birthplace of Solidarity.

Labour turmoil in Poland during 1980 had led to the formation of the independent trade union, Solidarity, led by Lech Wałęsa, which over time became a political force. On December 13, 1981, Communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski started a crack-down on Solidarity, declaring martial law in Poland, suspending the union, and temporarily imprisoning all of its leaders. Throughout the mid-1980s, Solidarity persisted solely as an underground organization, supported by the Catholic Church. However, by the late 1980s, Solidarity became sufficiently strong to frustrate Jaruzelski's attempts at reform, and nationwide strikes in 1988 forced the government to open a dialogue with Solidarity.

Meanwhile in the Soviet Union, the KGB chief Yuri Andropov successfully joined the Party Secretariat in May 1982 and became General Secretary. According to his former subordinate Securitate general Ion Mihai Pacepa,

"In the West, if Andropov is remembered at all, it is for his brutal suppression of political dissidence at home and for his role in planning the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. By contrast, the leaders of the former Warsaw Pact intelligence community, when I was one of them, looked up to Andropov as the man who substituted the KGB for the Communist party in governing the Soviet Union, and who was the godfather of Russia's new era of deception operations aimed at improving the badly damaged image of Soviet rulers in the West."^[15]

Although several Eastern bloc countries had attempted some abortive, limited economic and political reform since the 1950s (Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Prague Spring of 1968), the advent of reform-minded Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 signaled the trend toward greater liberalization. During the mid 1980s, a younger generation of Soviet apparatchiks, led by Gorbachev, began advocating fundamental reform in order to reverse years of Brezhnev stagnation. The Soviet Union was facing a period of severe economic decline and needed Western technology and credits to make up for its increasing backwardness. The costs of maintaining its so-called "empire" — the military, KGB, subsidies to foreign client states — further strained the moribund Soviet economy.

The first signs of major reform came in 1986 when Gorbachev launched a policy of glasnost (openness) in the Soviet Union, and emphasized the need for perestroika (economic restructuring). By the spring of 1989, the Soviet Union had not only experienced lively media debate, but had also held its first multi-candidate elections in the newly established Congress of People's Deputies. Though glasnost advocated openness and political criticism, at the time, it was only permitted in accordance with the political views of the Communists. The general public in the Eastern bloc were still threatened by secret police and political repression.

Moscow's largest obstacle to improved political and economic relations with the Western powers remained the Iron Curtain that existed between East and West. As long as the specter of Soviet military intervention loomed over Eastern Europe, it seemed unlikely that Moscow could attract the Western economic support needed to finance the country's restructuring. Gorbachev urged his Eastern European counterparts to imitate perestroika and glasnost in their own countries. However, while reformists in Hungary and Poland were emboldened by the force of liberalization spreading from East to West, other Eastern bloc countries remained openly skeptical and demonstrated aversion to reform. Past experiences had demonstrated that although reform in the Soviet Union was manageable, the pressure for change in Eastern Europe had the potential to become uncontrollable. These regimes owed their creation and continued survival to Soviet-style authoritarianism, backed by Soviet military power and subsidies. Believing Gorbachev's reform initiatives would be short-lived, orthodox Communist rulers like East Germany's Erich Honecker, Bulgaria's Todor Zhivkov, Czechoslovakia's Gustáv Husák, and Romania’s Nicolae Ceauşescu obstinately ignored the calls for change.^[16] "When your neighbor puts up new wallpaper, it doesn't mean you have to too," declared one East German politburo member.^[17]

Polish Round Table Talks

By 1989, the Soviet Union had repealed the Brezhnev Doctrine in favor of non-intervention in the internal affairs of its Warsaw Pact allies, termed the Sinatra Doctrine in a joking reference to the song "My Way". Poland became the first Warsaw Pact state country to break free of Soviet domination. Taking notice from Poland, Hungary was next to follow.

By the late 1980s, Solidarity became sufficiently strong to frustrate Jaruzelski's attempts at reform, and nationwide strikes in 1988 forced the government to open a dialogue with Solidarity. On March 9, 1989, both sides agreed to a bicameral legislature called the National Assembly. The already existing Sejm would become the lower house. The Senate would be elected by the people. Traditionally a ceremonial office, the presidency was given more powers^[18] (Polish Round Table Agreement).

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

In December 1986, Chinese student demonstrators, taking advantage of the loosening political atmosphere, staged protests against the slow pace of reform. Students called for campus elections, the chance to study abroad, and greater availability of western pop culture. Hu Yaobang, a protégé of Deng Xiaoping and a leading advocate of reform, was blamed for the protests and forced to resign as the CCP General Secretary in January 1987. In the "Anti Bourgeois Liberalization Campaign", Hu would be further denounced.

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 were sparked by the death of Hu Yaobang on April 15. By the eve of Hu's funeral, one million people had gathered at Tiananmen square.

Gorbachev's visit to the People's Republic of China on May 15 during the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 brought many foreign news agencies to Beijing, and their sympathetic portrayals of the protesters helped galvanize a spirit of liberation among the Eastern Europeans who were watching. The Chinese leadership, particularly Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, having begun earlier than the Soviets to radically reform the economy, was open to political reform, but not at the cost of a potential return to the disorder of the Cultural Revolution.

The movement lasted seven weeks, from Hu's death on 15 April until tanks cleared Tiananmen Square on 4 June. In Beijing, the resulting military response to the protesters by the PRC government left many civilians and military personnel charged with clearing the square of the dead or severely injured. The number of deaths is not known and many different estimates exist.

Revolutions of 1989

Poland

In April 1989, Solidarity was again legalized and allowed to participate in parliamentary elections on June 4, 1989 (incidentally, the day following the midnight crackdown on Chinese protesters in Tiananmen Square). A political earthquake followed. The victory of Solidarity surpassed all predictions. Solidarity candidates captured all the seats they were allowed to compete for in the Sejm, while in the Senate they captured 99 out of the 100 available seats (with the one remaining seat taken by an independent candidate). At the same time, many prominent Communist candidates failed to gain even the minimum number of votes required to capture the seats that were reserved for them. A new non-Communist government, the first of its kind in the former Eastern Bloc, was sworn into office in September 1989.

Hungary

Following Poland's lead, Hungary was next to revert to a non-Communist government. Although Hungary had achieved some lasting economic reforms and limited political liberalization during the 1980s, major reforms only occurred following the replacement of János Kádár as General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1988. That same year, the Parliament adopted a "democracy package", which included trade union pluralism; freedom of association, assembly, and the press; a new electoral law; and a radical revision of the constitution, among others.

In October 1989, the Communist Party convened its last congress and re-established itself as the Hungarian Socialist Party, which still exists today (see MSZP). In a historic session from October 16 to October 20, the parliament adopted legislation providing for multi-party parliamentary elections and a direct presidential election. The legislation transformed Hungary from a People's Republic into the Republic of Hungary, guaranteed human and civil rights, and created an institutional structure that ensured separation of powers among the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government. Hungarians suggested that Soviet troops "go home" — an idea first suggested by Viktor Orbán at the re-burying funeral of Imre Nagy.

East Germany

After a reformed border was opened from Hungary, a growing number of East Germans began emigrating to West Germany via Hungary's border with Austria. By the end of September 1989, more than 30,000 East Germans had escaped to the West before the GDR denied travel to Hungary, leaving the CSSR (Czechoslovakia) as the only neighboring state where East Germans could travel. Thousands of East Germans tried to reach the West by occupying the West German diplomatic facilities in other Eastern European capitals, notably the Prague Embassy where thousands camped in the muddy garden from August to November. The GDR closed the border to the CSSR in early October, thereby isolating itself from all neighbors. Having been shut off from their last chance for escape, East Germans began Monday demonstrations. Hundreds of thousands of people in several cities — particularly Leipzig — eventually took part.

After the October 2 demonstration, Socialist Unity Party (SED) leader Erich Honecker issued a shoot and kill order to the military.^[19] Communists prepared a huge police, militia, Stasi, and work-combat troop presence and there were rumors of a Tiananmen Square-style massacre.^[20]

On 6 October and 7 October, Gorbachev visited East Germany to mark the 40th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic, and urged the East German leadership to accept reform. A famous quote of his is rendered in German as "Wer zu spät kommt, den bestraft das Leben" (He who is too late is punished by life). However, the elderly Erich Honecker remained opposed to internal reform, with his regime even going so far as forbidding the circulation of Soviet publications that it viewed as subversive.

Faced with ongoing civil unrest, the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) deposed Honecker in mid-October, and replaced him with Egon Krenz. Also, the border to Czechoslovakia was opened again, but the Czechoslovak authorities soon let all East Germans travel directly to West Germany without further bureaucratic ado, thus lifting their part of the Iron Curtain on 3 November. Unable to stem the ensuing flow of refugees to the West through Czechoslovakia, the East German authorities eventually caved in to public pressure by allowing East German citizens to enter West Berlin and West Germany directly, via existing border points, on November 9, without having properly briefed the border guards.

Triggered by the erratic words of Günter Schabowski in a TV press conference, stating that the planned changes were "in effect immediately", hundreds of thousands of people took advantage of the opportunity; soon new crossing points were opened in the Berlin Wall and along the border with West Germany. By December, Krenz had been replaced, and the SED's monopoly on power had ended. This led to the acceleration of the process of reforms in East Germany that ended with the eventual reunification of East and West Germany that came into force on 3 October 1990.

The Kremlin's willingness to abandon such a strategically vital ally marked a dramatic shift by the Soviet superpower and a fundamental paradigm change in international relations, which until 1989 had been dominated by the East-West divide running through Berlin itself.

Czechoslovakia

Territory of former Eastern Bloc states with the dates that Communist rule ended. Dates of declaring independence for former USSR states.

The "Velvet Revolution" was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government. On November 17, 1989 (Friday), riot police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in Prague. That event sparked a series of popular demonstrations from November 19 to late December. By November 20 the number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague had swelled from 200,000 the previous day to an estimated half-million. A two-hour general strike, involving all citizens of Czechoslovakia, was successfully held on November 27.

With the collapse of other Communist governments, and increasing street protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced on November 28 that it would relinquish power and dismantle the single-party state. Barbed wire and other obstructions were removed from the border with West Germany and Austria in early December. On December 10, President Gustáv Husák appointed the first largely non-Communist government in Czechoslovakia since 1948, and resigned. Alexander Dubček was elected speaker of the federal parliament on December 28 and Václav Havel the President of Czechoslovakia on December 29, 1989.

In June 1990 Czechoslovakia held its first democratic elections since 1946.

Bulgaria

The Turkish minority, which had suffered under Communism, began to escape on the summer of 1989. About a quarter million Bulgarian Turks escaped to Turkey where large refugee camps were formed.^[21]

On November 10, 1989 — the day after the Berlin Wall was breached — Bulgaria's long-serving leader Todor Zhivkov was ousted by his Politburo. Moscow apparently approved the leadership change, despite Zhivkov's reputation as a slavish Soviet ally. Yet, Zhivkov's departure was not enough to satisfy the growing pro-democracy movement. By the time the impact of Mikhail Gorbachev's reform program in the Soviet Union was felt in Bulgaria in the late 1980s, the Communists, like their leader, had grown too feeble to resist the demand for change for long.

In November 1989 demonstrations on ecological issues were staged in Sofia, and these soon broadened into a general campaign for political reform. The Communists reacted by deposing the decrepit Zhivkov and replacing him with Petar Mladenov, but this gained them only a short respite. In February 1990 the Communist Party, forced by street protests gave up its claim on power and in June 1990 the first free elections since 1931 were held, won by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (the new name of the Communist Party). Although Zhivkov eventually faced trial in 1991, he escaped the violent fate of his northern comrade, Romanian President Nicolae Ceauşescu.

Malta Summit

The Malta Summit consisted of a meeting between U.S. President George H. W. Bush and U.S.S.R. leader Mikhail Gorbachev, taking place between December 2–3, 1989, just a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was their second meeting following a meeting that included then President Ronald Reagan, in New York in December 1988. News reports of the time referred to the Malta Summit as the most important since 1945, when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed on a post-war plan for Europe at Yalta.

Romania

Unlike other Eastern European countries, Romania had never undergone even limited de-Stalinization, yet had adopted a course independent of Soviet domination since the 1960s. In November 1989, Ceauşescu, then aged 71, was re-elected for another five years as leader of the Romanian Communist Party, signalling that he intended to ride out the anti-Communist uprisings sweeping the rest of Eastern Europe. As Ceauşescu prepared to go on a state visit to Iran, his Securitate ordered the arrest and exile of a local Hungarian-speaking Calvinist minister, László Tőkés, on 16 December, for sermons offending the regime. Tőkés was seized, but only after serious rioting erupted. Timişoara was the first city to react, on 16 December, and it remained rioting for 5 days.

Returning from Iran, Ceauşescu ordered a mass rally in his support outside Communist Party headquarters in Bucharest. However, to his shock, the crowd booed as he spoke. After learning about the incidents (both from Timişoara and from Bucharest) from Western radio stations, years of repressed dissatisfaction boiled to the surface throughout the Romanian populace and even among elements in Ceauşescu's own government, and the demonstrations spread throughout the country.

At first the security forces obeyed Ceauşescu's orders to shoot protesters, but on the morning of 22 December, the Romanian military suddenly changed sides. Army tanks began moving towards the Central Committee building with crowds swarming alongside them. The rioters forced open the doors of the Central Committee building in an attempt to get Ceauşescu and his wife, Elena, in their grip, but they managed to escape via a helicopter waiting for them on the roof of the building. The revolution resulted in 1104 deaths.

Although elation followed the flight of the Ceauşescus, uncertainty surrounded their fate. On Christmas Day, Romanian television showed the Ceauşescus facing a hasty trial, and then suffering summary execution. An interim National Salvation Front Council took over and announced elections for April 1990. The first elections were actually held on May 20, 1990.

Albania and Yugoslavia

In the Socialist People's Republic of Albania, Enver Hoxha, who ruled Albania for four decades with an iron fist, died 11 April 1985. In 1989, the first revolts started in Shkodra and spread in other cities. Eventually, the existing regime introduced some liberalization, including measures in 1990 providing for freedom to travel abroad. Efforts were begun to improve ties with the outside world. March 1991 elections left the former Communists in power, but a general strike and urban opposition led to the formation of a coalition cabinet including non-Communists. Albania's former Communists were routed in elections March 1992, amid economic collapse and social unrest.

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was not a part of the Warsaw Pact but pursued its own version of "Communism" under Josip Broz Tito. It was a multi-ethnic state, and the tensions between ethnicities first escalated with the so-called Croatian Spring of 1970-71, a movement for greater autonomy of Croatia, which was suppressed. In 1974 there followed constitutional changes devolving some of the federal powers to the constituent republics and provinces. After Tito's death in 1980 ethnic tensions grew, first in Albanian-majority Kosovo. In late 1980s Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević used the Kosovo crisis to stoke up Serb nationalism and attempt to consolidate and dominate the country, which alienated the other ethnic groups.

Parallel to the same process, Slovenia witnessed a policy of gradual liberalization since 1984, not unlike the Soviet Perestroika. This provoked tensions between the League of Communists of Slovenia on one side, and the central Yugoslav Party and the Federal Army on the other side. In mid May 1988, the Peasant Union of Slovenia was organized as the first non-Communist political organization in the country. Later in the same month, the Yugoslav Army arrested four Slovenian journalists of the alternative magazine Mladina, accusing them of revealing state secrets. The so-called Ljubljana trial triggered mass protests in Ljubljana and other Slovenian cities. The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights was established as the platform of all major non-Communist political movements. By early 1989, several anti-Communist political parties were already openly functioning, challenging the hegemony of the Slovenian Communists. Soon, the Slovenian Communists, pressured by their own civil society, entered in conflict with the Serbian Communist leadership.

In January 1990, an extraordinary Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia was called in order to settle the disputes among its constituent parties. Faced with being completely outnumbered, the Slovenian Communists left the Congress, thus de facto bringing to an end the Yugoslav Communist Party. The Slovenian Communists were followed by the Croatian ones. Both parties of the two western republics negotiated free multi-party elections with their own opposition movements.

In the spring of 1990s, the democratic and anti-Yugoslav DEMOS coalition won the elections in Slovenia, while the Croatian elections witnessed the landslide victory of the nationalists. The results were much more balanced in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia, while the parliamentary and presidential elections in Serbia and Montenegro consolidated the power of Milošević and his supporters. Free elections on the level of the federation were never carried out. Instead, the Slovenian and Croatian leaderships started preparing plans for secession from the federation.

Escalating ethnic and national tensions led to the Yugoslav wars and the independence of the constituent (federal) units, in chronological order:

• Slovenia (25 June 1991)
• Croatia (25 June 1991)
• Republic of Macedonia (8 September 1991)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina (1 March 1992)
• Serbia and Montenegro (2 state unions between 1992–2006). Montenegro proclaimed independence on June 3, 2006, while Serbia proclaimed its succession to the union as an independent state on June 5, 2006.
• Kosovo (17 February 2008, partially recognized)

Collapse of the Soviet Union

On July 1, 1991, the Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague. At a summit later that same month, Gorbachev and Bush declared a US–Soviet strategic partnership, decisively marking the end of the Cold War. President Bush declared that US–Soviet cooperation during the 1990–91 Gulf War had laid the groundwork for a partnership in resolving bilateral and world problems.

As the Soviet Union rapidly withdrew its forces from Eastern Europe, the spillover from the 1989 upheavals began reverberating throughout the Soviet Union itself. Agitation for self-determination led to first Lithuania, and then Estonia, Latvia and Armenia declaring independence. Disaffection in other Soviet republics, such as Georgia and Azerbaijan, was countered by promises of greater decentralization. More open elections led to the election of candidates opposed to Communist Party rule.

Glasnost had inadvertently released the long-suppressed national sentiments of all peoples within the borders of the multinational Soviet state. These nationalist movements were further strengthened by the rapid deterioration of the Soviet economy, whereby Moscow's rule became a convenient scapegoat for economic troubles. Gorbachev's reforms had failed to improve the economy, with the old Soviet command structure completely breaking down. One by one, the constituent republics created their own economic systems and voted to subordinate Soviet laws to local laws.

In an attempt to halt the rapid changes to the system, a group of Soviet hard-liners represented by Vice-President Gennadi Yanayev launched a coup overthrowing Gorbachev in August 1991. Boris Yeltsin, then president of the Russian SFSR, rallied the people and much of the army against the coup and the effort collapsed. Although restored to power, Gorbachev's authority had been irreparably undermined. In September, the Baltic states were granted independence. On December 1, Ukrainian voters approved independence from the Soviet Union in a referendum. On December 26, 1991, the Soviet Union was officially disbanded, breaking up into fifteen constituent parts, thereby ending the world's largest and most influential Communist state, and leaving People's Republic of China to that position.

The nations that gained independence from Moscow were:

• Armenia - The independence struggle included violence. The Nagorno-Karabakh War was fought between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia became increasingly militarized (with the ascendancy of Kocharian, a former president of Nagorno-Karabakh, often viewed as a milestone), while elections have since been increasingly controversial, and government corruption became more rife. After Kocharyan, notably, Serzh Sargsyan ascended to power. Sargsyan is often noted as the "founder of the Armenian and Karabakh militaries" and was, in the past, defense minister and national security minister.
• Azerbaijan - The Azerbaijani Popular Front Party won first elections with the self-described pro-Western, populist nationalist Elchibey. However, Elchibey planned to end Moscow's advantage in the harvesting of Azeri oil and build much stronger links with Turkey and Europe, and as a result was overthrown by former Communists in a coup backed by Russia and Iran (which viewed the new country as a compelling threat, with territorial ambitions within Iranian borders and also being a strong economic rival). Mutallibov rose to power, but he was soon destabilized and eventually ousted due to popular frustration with his perceived incompetence, corruption and improper handling of the war with Armenia. Azerbaijani KGB and Azerbaijani SSR leader Heydar Aliyev captured power and remained president until he transferred the presidency to his son in 2003. The Nagorno-Karabakh War was fought between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and has largely defined the fates of both countries. However, unlike Armenia, which remains a strong Russian ally, Azerbaijan has begun, since Russia's 2008 war with Georgia, to foster better relations with Turkey and other Western nations, while cutting ties with Russia, including its CIS membership.
• Belarus - Former Communist leader Alexander Lukashenko has retained power and has been criticized for repressing political opposition ever since.
• Chechnya - Using tactics partly copied from the Baltics, Anti-Communist coalition forces led by former Soviet general Dzhokkar Dudayev staged a largely bloodless revolution, and ended up forcing the resignation of the Communist republican president. Dudayev was elected in a landslide in the following election and in November 1991 he proclaimed Checheno-Ingushetia's independence as the Republic of Ichkeria. Ingushetia voted to leave the union with Chechnya, and was allowed to do so (thus it became the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria). Due to his desire to exclude Moscow from all oil deals, Yeltsin backed a failed coup against him in 1993. In 1994, Chechnya, with only marginal recognition (one country: Georgia, which was revoked soon after the coup landing Shevardnadze in power), was invaded by Russia, spurring the First Chechen War. The Chechens, with considerable assistance from the populations of both former-Soviet countries and from Sunni Muslim countries repelled this invasion and a peace treaty was signed in 1997. However, Chechnya became increasingly anarchic, largely due to the both political and physical destruction of the state during the invasion, and general Shamil Basaev, having evaded all control by the central government, conducted raids into neighboring Dagestan, which Russia used as pretext for reinvading Ichkeria. Ichkeria was then reincorporated into Russia as Chechnya again, though fighting continues.
• Estonia - The Singing Revolution implemented democratic reforms and achieved independence from the Soviet Union.
• Georgia - In April 1989 the Soviet army repressed demonstrators violently. By November 1989, the Georgian SSR officially condemned Russian invasion in 1921 and continuing occupation. Democracy activist Zviad Gamsakhurdia served as president from 1991 to 1992. A coup d'état installed former Communist leader Eduard Shevardnadze until the Rose Revolution in 2003.
• Kazakhstan - Independence struggle began with the Jeltoqsan uprising in 1986. Former Communist leader Nursultan Nazarbayev has been in power since 1991.
• Kyrgyzstan - Former Communist leader Askar Akayev retained power until the Tulip Revolution in 2006.
• Latvia - The Singing Revolution implemented democratic reforms and achieved independence from the Soviet Union.
• Lithuania - The Singing Revolution implemented democratic reforms and achieved independence from the Soviet Union.
• Moldova - Participated in the War of Transnistria between Moldova and Russian-connected forces. Communists came back to power in a 2001 election under Vladimir Voronin, but faced civil unrest in 2009 over accusation of rigged elections.
• Tajikistan - Former Communist leader Rahmon Nabiyev retained power, which led to the civil war in Tajikistan. Emomalii Rahmon has succeeded Nabiyev and has retained power since 1992.
• Turkmenistan - Former Communist leader Saparmurat Niyazov retained power and has been criticized as one of the world's most totalitarian and repressive leaders, maintaining his own cult of personality.
• Ukraine - Presidencies of former Communists Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma were followed by the Orange Revolution in 2004, in which Ukrainians elected Viktor Yushchenko.
• Uzbekistan - Former Communist leader Islam Karimov retained power and has been criticized for repressing the political opposition ever since.

Moscow was involved in a number of conflicts, including the Nagorno-Karabakh War, the War of Transnistria, the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War, the First Chechen War, the War in Abkhazia (1992–1993), the Ossetian–Ingush conflict, and the Crimea conflict in Ukraine.

Other events

Communist and Socialist countries

Reforms in the Soviet Union also saw dramatic changes to Communist and Socialist states outside of Europe.

• Afghanistan - The Soviet occupation ended and the Communist government under Mohammad Najibullah fell to the Mujahideen in 1992.
• Angola - The ruling MPLA government Abandoned Marxism-Leninism in 1991.
• Benin - Mathieu Kérékou's regime was pressured to abandon Marxism-Leninism in 1990.
• Burma - The 8888 Uprising in 1988 saw the demise of the Burma Socialist Programme Party, but failed to bring democracy although Marxism was abandoned. It has since been lead by a military government under the State Peace and Development Council.
• Cambodia - The Khmer Rouge and the Vietnam-supported government both lost power following UN-sponsored elections in 1993.
• China - The Communist Party of China has implemented Chinese economic reforms since 1978. The pro-democracy protests of 1989 were crushed by the government.
• Cuba - The end of Soviet subsidies led to the Special Period. A large but unsuccessful protest was held in 1994 (see August 1994 protest in Cuba).
• Congo - Denis Sassou Nguesso's regime was pressured to abandon Marxism-Leninism in 1991. The nation had elections in 1992.
• Ethiopia - Following the withdrawal of Soviet and Cuban assistance, the Communist military junta Derg lost to rebel Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front and fled in 1991.
• Iraq - Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990, resulting in Iraqi defeat at the end of the Gulf War. Kurdish Iraqi civilians rebelled against Saddam Hussein in 1991, which was suppressed with massive and indiscriminate force. The country has been under sanctions until its overthrow in 2003.
• Laos - Remained Communist under the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. Laos was forced to ask France and Japan for emergency assistance, and also to ask the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for aid. Finally, in 1989, Kaisôn visited Beijing to confirm the restoration of friendly relations, and to secure Chinese aid.
• India - Indian economic reforms were launched in 1991.
• Madagascar - Socialist President Didier Ratsiraka was ousted.
• Mali - Moussa Traoré was ousted, Mali adopted a new constitution and held multi-party elections.
• Mongolia - The 1990 Democratic Revolution in Mongolia saw a gradual moved to allow free multi-party elections and the writing of the new constitution. The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party retained its majority in the 1990 elections, but lost the 1996 elections.
• Mozambique - The ruling FRELIMO Abandoned Marxism-Leninism in 1991 and held democratic elections in 1994.
• Nicaragua - Daniel Ortega's Sandinista government was pressured to hold multiparty elections in 1990, which it lost to National Opposition Union.
• North Korea - Kim Il-sung died in 1994, passing power to his son Kim Jong-il. Unprecedented floods and the collapse of the Soviet Union led to the North Korean famine, which resulted in the deaths of An estimated 2.5 million to 3 million North Koreans. All references to Marxism-Leninism were replaced by Juche in 1998.
• Somalia - Rebelling Somalians overthrew Siad Barre's Communist military junta. Somalia has been in a constant state of civil war ever since.
• South Yemen - Abandoned Marxism-Leninism in 1990; it reunified with the more capitalistic North Yemen that year.
• Syria - Syria participated in the Madrid Conference of 1991 and met its Cold War enemy Israel in peace negotiations.
• Tanzania - The ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party cut down its Socialist ideology and foreign donors pressured the government to allow multiparty elections in 1995.
• Vietnam - The Communist Party of Vietnam has undertaken Doi Moi reforms since 1986. Vietnam is still a single-party Communist state.

Non-Communist countries

Many Soviet-supported political parties and militant groups around the world suffered from demoralization and loss of financing.

• Austria - The Communist Party of Austria lost its East German financing and 250 million euros in assets.
• Belgium - The Communist Party of Belgium was divided to two parties in 1989.
• Finland - The Finnish People's Democratic League was dissolved in 1990 and the bankrupt Communist Party of Finland collapsed in 1992, and absorbed to the Left Alliance.
• France - The collapse of the Eastern Bloc came as a shock to the French Communist Party. The crisis is called la mutation.
• West Germany - The Red Army Faction lost its long-term supporter, the Stasi, after the Berlin Wall fell.^[22]
• Greece - The Organisation of Marxist-Leninist Communists of Greece was dissolved in 1993 and merged into the Movement for a United Communist Party of Greece.
• Ireland - The Communist Party of Ireland declined significantly.
• Italy - The collapse caused the Italian Communist Party to reform itself, creating two new groups, the larger Democratic Party of the Left and the smaller Communist Refoundation Party. The disappearance of the Communist party in part led to profound changes within the Italian political party system in 1992-1994.
• Japan - The Japanese Communist Party issued a statement titled "We welcome the end of a great historical evil of imperialism and hegemonism".
• Malaysia - The Malayan Communist Party laid down its arms in 1989, ending the Communist Insurgency War that had lasted decades.
• Mexico - The Mexican Communist Party and a number of other Communist parties were dissolved in 1989 and absorbed first into the Mexican Socialist Party and then into the Party of the Democratic Revolution.
• Netherlands - The Communist Party of the Netherlands was dissolved in 1991 and absorbed to the GreenLeft.
• Norway - The Communist Party of Norway and the Workers' Communist Party changed their pro-Soviet line.
• Palestine - The Palestine Liberation Organization lost one of its most important diplomatic patrons, due to the deterioration of the Soviet Union, and Arafat's failing relationship with Moscow. PLO accepted the Oslo Accords in 1993.
• Peru - The Shining Path, responsible for killing tens of thousands people, shrunk in the 1990s.
• Sweden - The Communist Association of Norrköping was dissolved in 1990 and the Kommunistiska Förbundet Marxist-Leninisterna ceased to function as nationwide party. The pro-Albanian Kommunistiska Partiet i Sverige and the Maoist Communist Workers' Party of Sweden were dissolved in 1993.
• Turkey - The Communist Labour Party of Turkey was split.
• United Kingdom - The Communist Party of Great Britain was dissolved.

Anti-Communist countries

Concurrently, many anti-Communist authoritarian states, formerly supported by the US, gradually saw a transition to democracy.

• Chile - The military junta under Augusto Pinochet was pressured to implement democratic elections, which saw Chile's democratization in 1990.
• El Salvador - The Salvadoran Civil War ended in 1992 following the Chapultepec Peace Accords. The rebel FMLN movement became a legal political party and participated in subsequent elections.
• Panama - The Manuel Noriega regime was overthrown by the US invasion in 1989 as a result of his suppression of elections, drug-trafficking activities and the killing of a US serviceman.
• South Korea - The June Democracy Movement's protests led to the fall of the Chun Doo-hwan government in 1987, and the country's first democratic elections.
• South Africa - Negotiations were started in 1990 to end the Apartheid system. Nelson Mandela was elected as the President of South Africa in 1994.
• Taiwan - The ruling Kuomintang lifted the martial law preventing the forming of other political parties in 1987. The country's first democratic elections was held in 1996.

Political reforms

Decommunization is a process of overcoming the legacies of the Communist state establishments, culture, and psychology in the post-Communist states. It is similar to denazification.

Decommunization was largely limited or non-existent. Communist parties were not outlawed and their members were not brought to trial. Just a few places even attempted to exclude members of communist secret services from decision-making. In a number of countries the Communist party simply changed its name and continued to function.^[23]

In several European countries, however, endorsing or attempting to justify crimes committed by Nazi or Communist regimes will be punishable by up to 3 years of imprisonment.^[24]

Economic reforms

Enterprises in Socialist countries had little or no interest in producing what customers wanted because of prevailing shortages of goods and services.^[25] In the early 1990s, a popular refrain stated that "there is no precedent for moving from Socialism to capitalism."^[26] Only the over 60 year old people remembered how a market economy worked. It was not hard to imagine Eastern Europe staying poor for decades.^[27]

There was a temporary fall of output in official economy and increase in unofficial economy.^[25] Countries implemented different reform programs such as the Balcerowicz Plan in Poland. Eventually the official economy began to grow.^[25]

In 2004 Polish Nobel Peace Prize winner and President Lech Wałęsa described a transition from capitalism to Communism as "heating up an aquarium with fish" to get fish soup. He said that reversing Communism to capitalism was challenging, but "We can already see some little fish swimming in our aquarium."^[28]

In a 2007 paper Oleh Havrylyshyn categorized the speed of reforms in the Soviet Bloc:^[26]

• Sustained Big-Bang (fastest): Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia
• Advance Start/Steady Progress: Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia
• Aborted Big-Bang: Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia
• Gradual Reforms: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Romania
• Limited Reforms (slowest): Belarus, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan

It was concluded that gradual reformers suffered more social pain, not less. The countries with fastest transition to market economy performed much better on the Human Development Index.^[26]

The 2004 enlargement of the European Union included Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The 2007 enlargement of the European Union included Romania and Bulgaria. The same countries have also become NATO members.

Chinese economic liberalization started since 1978 have helped lift millions of people out of poverty, bringing the poverty rate down from 53% of the population in the Mao era to 12% in 1981. Deng's economic reforms are still being followed by the CPC today and by 2001 the poverty rate became only 6% of the population.^[29]

Economic liberalization in Vietnam was initiated in 1986, following Chinese example.

Economic liberalization in India was initiated in 1991.

Harvard University Professor Richard B. Freeman has called the effect of reforms "The Great Doubling". He calculated that the size of global workforce doubled from 1.46 billion workers to 2.93 billion workers.^[30][31] An immediate effect was a reduced ratio of capital to labor. In the long term China, India, and the former Soviet bloc will save and invest and contribute to the expansion of the world capital stock.^[31]

China's rapid growth has led some people to predict a "Chinese Century".^[32][33][34]

Communism in Russia

Compared with the efforts of the other former constituents of the Soviet bloc and the Soviet Union, decommunization in Russia has been restricted to half-measures, if conducted at all.^[35] As of 2008, nearly half of Russians view Stalin positively, and many support restoration of his monuments dismantled in the past.^[36][37] The siloviki continued to exercise great power in Russia. Former Russian President and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent, has called the collapse of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century".^[38]

In April, 2005, in his formal address to Russia's Parliament, President Putin famously said: "Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century. As for the Russian nation, it became a genuine drama. Tens of millions of our co-citizens and compatriots found themselves outside Russian territory. Moreover, the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself."^[39]

In 1992, President Yeltsin's government invited Vladimir Bukovsky to serve as an expert to testify at the CPSU trial by Constitutional Court of Russia, where the Communists were suing Yeltsin for banning their party. The respondent's case was that the CPSU itself had been an unconstitutional organization. To prepare for his testimony, Bukovsky requested and was granted access to a large number of documents from Soviet archives (then reorganized into TsKhSD). Using a small handheld scanner and a laptop computer, he managed to secretly scan many documents (some with high security clearance), including KGB reports to the Central Committee, and smuggle the files to the West.^[40] The event that many expected would be another Nuremberg Trial and the beginnings of reconciliation with the Communist past, ended up in half-measures: while the CPSU was found unconstitutional, the Communists were allowed to form new parties in the future. Bukovsky expressed his deep disappointment with this in his writings and interviews:

Interpretations

The events caught many by surprise. Predictions of the Soviet Union's impending demise had been often dismissed.^[42]

Bartlomiej Kaminski's book The Collapse Of State Socialism argued that the state Socialist system has a lethal paradox: "policy actions designed to improve performance only accelerate its decay".^[43]

By the end of 1989, revolts had spread from one capital to another, ousting the regimes imposed on Eastern Europe after World War II. Even the isolationist Stalinist regime in Albania was unable to stem the tide. Gorbachev's abrogation of the Brezhnev Doctrine was perhaps the key factor that enabled the popular uprisings to succeed. Once it became evident that the feared Red Army would not intervene to crush dissent, the Eastern European regimes were exposed as vulnerable in the face of popular uprisings against the one-party system and power of secret police.

Coit D. Blacker wrote in 1990 that the Soviet leadership "appeared to have believed that whatever loss of authority the Soviet Union might suffer in Eastern Europe would be more than offset by a net increase in its influence in western Europe."^[44] Nevertheless, it is unlikely that Gorbachev ever intended for the complete dismantling of Communism and the Warsaw Pact. Rather, Gorbachev assumed that the Communist parties of Eastern Europe could be reformed in a similar way to the reforms he hoped to achieve in the CPSU. Just as perestroika was aimed at making the Soviet Union more efficient economically and politically, Gorbachev believed that the Comecon and Warsaw Pact could be reformed into more effective entities. However, Alexander Yakovlev, a close advisor to Gorbachev, would later state that it would have been "absurd to keep the system" in Eastern Europe. Yakovlev had come to the conclusion that the Soviet-dominated Comecon could not work on non-market principles and that the Warsaw Pact had "no relevance to real life."^[17]

Remembrance

Public holidays

• German Unity Day in Germany - A national holiday commemorating the anniversary of German reunification in 1990
• Statehood Day in Slovenia - Commemorates the country's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
• Independence and Unity Day in Slovenia - Commemorates the country's independence referendum.
• Day of National Unity in Georgia - is a public holiday commemorating victims of the April 9 tragedy
• National Day in Hungary
• Constitution Day in Romania - Commemorates the 1991 Romanian Constitution that enshrined the return to democracy after the fall of the Communist regime.
• Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day in the Slovak Republic
• Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day in the Czech Republic

Symbols, memorials and museums

• Gdańsk Shipyard in Poland
• Memorial to the victims of Communism in the Czech Republic
• Lennon Wall in the Czech Republic
• Dawn of Liberty in Kazakhstan - A monument dedicated to Jeltoqsan
• Memorial of Rebirth in Romania
• Museum of Communism, Czech Republic
• Museum of Communism, Poland
• Global Museum on Communism
• House of Terror in Hungary
• Stasi Museum in the old headquarters
• Museum of Soviet occupation in Kiev, Ukraine
• Museum of Soviet Occupation in Tbilisi, Georgia
• Museum of the Occupation of Latvia
• Museum of Occupations (Estonia)
• Museum of Occupation (Vilnius)
• Museum of Genocide Victims in Vilnius, Lithuania
• Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia

Literature, music, films

• The Soviet Story - An award-winning documentary film about the Soviet Union.
• The Singing Revolution - A documentary film about the Singing Revolution.
• Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism - A book and a documentary film based on the book
• Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire - A Pulitzer Prize-awarded book

See also

• 1990 Democratic Revolution in Mongolia
• Baltic Tiger
• Carpat Tiger
• Chinese democracy movement
• Color revolutions
• Commonwealth of Independent States
• Enlargement of the European Union
• Enlargement of NATO
• People Power Revolution
• January Events
• Ján Čarnogurský
• JBTZ-trial
• Jeans Revolution
• Making the History of 1989 (online database)
• Polish Round Table Agreement
• Reagan Doctrine
• Yugoslavian civil war

References

This article incorporates information from the revision as of 1 April 2006 of the equivalent article on the Polish Wikipedia.

• Dietmar Schultke: Keiner kommt durch - Die Geschichte der innerdeutschen Grenze und der Berliner Mauer, Aufbau-Verlag Berlin 2008
• Lévesque, Jacques (1997). The Enigma of 1989: The USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe. University of California Press. p. 275. ISBN 978-0520206311. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft4q2nb3h6/. 

External links

• The History of 1989: The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe
• Some of aspects of state national economy evolution in the system of the international economic order.
• A look at the collapse of Eastern European Communism two decades later
• Annotated Bibliography

Eastern Bloc Soviet Union · Communism Annexed as, or into, SSRs Eastern Finland · Estonia · Latvia · Lithuania · Memel · East Prussia · West Belarus · Western Ukraine · Moldavia Satellite states People's Republic of Hungary · People's Republic of Poland · Czechoslovak Socialist Republic · Romanian People's Republic/Socialist Republic of Romania · East Germany · People's Republic of Albania (to 1961) · People's Republic of Bulgaria · Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (to 1948) Annexing SSRs Russian SFSR · Ukrainian SSR · Byelorussian SSR Related organizations Cominform · COMECON · Warsaw Pact · WFTU · WFDY Revolts and opposition Uprising in Plzeň (1953) · Uprising of 1953 in East Germany · 1956 Georgian demonstrations · Poznań 1956 protests · Hungarian Revolution of 1956 · Novocherkassk massacre · Prague Spring and Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia · 1968 Red Square demonstration · Solidarity, Soviet reaction and Martial law · Reagan Doctrine · Jeltoqsan · April 9 tragedy · Romanian Revolution of 1989 · Black January Cold War events Marshall Plan · Berlin Blockade · Tito–Stalin split · Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 · Berlin Wall Crisis of 1961 Conditions Eastern Bloc emigration and defection · Eastern Bloc information dissemination · Eastern Bloc politics · Eastern Bloc economies · Telephone tapping in the Eastern Bloc · List of Eastern Bloc defectors Decline Revolutions of 1989 · Fall of the Berlin Wall  · Singing Revolution · Collapse of the Soviet Union · Dissolution of Czechoslovakia · January 1991 events in Lithuania · January 1991 events in Latvia